Martin O'Neill will not be officially in charge of Sunderland on Sunday, but he will still loom over the game. His new squad has much to prove after failing to win any of their last four matches. This fixture, all the same, involves much more than Sunderland's prospects of recovering status. Wolves, 17th in the table, are immediately behind the visitors on goal difference. With roughly a third of the programme completed, sides can be clearer about their aims. For Mick McCarthy, survival is the ambition. Sunderland will anticipate more than that, yet this match could still illustrate the difficulties O'Neill must address. Kevin McCarra